Opinion

Fair housing is an important value in our society — something that all levels of government must defend.

Recently, local developer Phil Warfield filed a lawsuit against the city for its rejection of his proposed four-lot subdivision on New Mexico Avenue.

The state courts will decide on the merits of that litigation, but Warfield’s lawsuit raised an interesting issue: Residents who opposed the development made statements that seemed to counter the idea of fair housing.

Sometimes you have to marvel at the contradictions in government-speak.

Patrick Lyons’ official title is “Commissioner of Public Lands.” But in defending his controversial proposal to swap Whites Peak lands, he argues in a PowerPoint presentation that state-owned lands in that area are not public lands. They’re trust lands.

Say what?

By Lyons’ account, the “public” part of his title is a big mistake. He is the public lands commissioner, but he’s not.

I am appalled by the actions of District Judge Eugenio Mathis in the case against Richard Baca in the killing of Benito Lemos. The reduction of charges and bail on the basis of a self-defense argument is absurd.

Unlike Thomas Wolfe’s protagonist, George Webber, in “You Can’t Go Home Again,” who returned home after writing a novel which upset his family and his hometown’s denizens by exposing the nature of the town’s failings, I’ve always been met with warmth and approbation when I return to Wagon Mound, my home for 11 years. Of course, I haven’t written a novel about the place.

Nevertheless, no matter when I’ve returned to the village, I come away with good feelings.

Thumbs UP for ... HISTORY RECORDED THROUGH ART. Casa de Cultura, a local nonprofit organization and significant contributor to quality of life in Las Vegas, was awarded $15,000 by the city to create a mural on “The People’s History of Northern New Mexico.” The money will go for paneling and materials (though the total price tag is estimated at $25,000). The mural will be on the north end of the old Safeway parking lot at Seventh Street and Douglas Avenue.

I have had it with all the reports blaming secondhand cigarette smoke for all the illnesses of mankind. Most of my patients who smoked died from old age and nothing else. People need to take a good long look at all the damage caused from radiation contamination. It is in the air we are breathing.

You can see cigarette smoke, you can’t see radiation fallout. The government will not tell you the truth as to what we are breathing in our air. Look at all the illness caused from radiation contamination.

Remember the fun we had two years ago with the letters on the marquee at the off-again, off-again running of the Serf Theater?

To review: Some time after the airing of “No Country for Old Men,” the management had a showing of “In Her Shoes,” starring Cameron Diaz. It was a flick my wife Bonnie and I practically slept through. The first rule of movie-watcherdom is to have a person we can admire, whom we can identify with, but in this movie, there were none. But I’m not a movie critic, so back to the marquee.

A landowner in El Valle, who stands to profit from the Invenergy Industrial facility on the mesa next to Starvation Peak, has approached the board of directors of West Las Vegas High School to gain support for the project. As you probably know from previous opinions on the subject, most people in our neighborhood reject the location for the wind turbines. More than 300 petition (signatures) have been gathered against it.

In Mayor Tony Marquez’s recent press release announcing that he would not run for re-election, he took credit for “liberating” our city government from “old time politics and the patron system.” Mayor Marquez also stated that he chose to “side with the people.” What “people” was Mayor Marquez referring to? I was not one of them.

The lack of stability has hurt City Hall over the last dozen years. As such, the Las Vegas City Council has rightly placed continuity as one of its chief goals.

Too often, petty politics has caused turnover in the city manager’s position. New mayors have come in, with the proverbial swagger intent on installing their loyalists. And that means employees have had to undergo new processes, new rules, new management styles at regular intervals.

Thumbs UP for ... A VISIT FROM A HERO. It’s not every day that Las Vegas gets an up-close look at one of the major participants in American history. On Sunday, Minnijean Brown-Trickey spoke at the United World College about her experiences as a member of the Little Rock Nine, the black students who integrated Little Rock’s Central High School in 1957 under the protection of federal troops.

I recently had the opportunity to revisit Las Vegas and my wife and I got to spend 10 really nice days visiting friends who live in town. I again found many of the residents that I encountered to be friendly and welcoming.

Since we drove out to New Mexico from Florida, I was able to take my beagle Izzy with us on the trip. I had many walks with her through town and was able to see many side streets not normally seen by tourists. What I saw in many instances disturbed me.

Local government entities say they hire people based on qualifications, not connections. I hope that’s true.

Both the Las Vegas City Council and the San Miguel County Commission vote on all people hired in their respective entities. Since I started covering both more than five years ago, they have approved every person recommended for hire but one.

Three years ago, then-Commission Chairman Hugh Ley voted against the employment of the son of then-Commissioner, Kenneth Medina. Ley said he did so because he didn’t want to hire the relatives of commissioners.

On behalf of the Atencio and Augie Fudala families, we would like to say thank you so much to those of you who voted for our barn in the Campbell’s Soup and FFA barn renovation project. We are both humbled and grateful for your participation, and thanks to all the votes we received, our barn in Bark River, Mich., was one of five winning barns of a national contest that will be getting a facelift sometime in June.

It’s clear the corporation that runs Alta Vista Regional Hospital has an extensive anti-union playbook. It seems to have an answer for handling just about every union tactic.

But they never figured on the San Miguel County Commission getting in the way.

For years, San Miguel County — and other counties as well — routinely approve monthly payments for indigent services to hospitals. That money is to help hospitals pay for health care for those too poor to pay.

As huge scoops of rock, mortar, wood and glass were loaded into waiting dump trucks yesterday, I waved goodbye.

It’s gone. Mortimer Hall, my home away from home for about 25 years — its parts being hauled off to a landfill somewhere — has been razed, with surprising speed, to make room for the new student center.